When should a football club retire a player's shirt number?

Moore, Baggio, Maradona, Maldini and ‘the 12th man’ have all been given the honour but is it really a sign of weakness?

By Ricci Potts for The Gentleman Ultra

Not long ago I was speaking to some Napoli fans about Lorenzo Insigne. He was born in Naples, signed for the club aged 15 and has been running up the wing at the Stadio San Paolo for nearly a decade. I put it to the supporters that, if Insigne helped the club go one better than the second-place finish they achieved in Serie A last season and Napoli finally won their third league title, it might be fitting to reward him with a new squad number. The club retired Diego Maradona’s No 10 shirt after he inspired them to two league titles in 1987 and 1990. If anyone deserved the honour of bringing it out of retirement, surely it would be local boy Insigne?

The Napoli fans responded with an unequivocal “no”. It was nothing against Insigne, they said, but rather the simple acknowledgment that no one ever will deserve the No 10 shirt because no one will ever be Maradona. Insigne will have to stick with the No 24 – his wife’s birth date.

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